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Barber was the third son of John Barber and his Danish wife, Musse. His birth was registered in Sculcoates, a suburb of Kingston upon Hull. Barber's unusual middle names arose from his mother, who contributed the "Lysberg", and French grandmother, who contributed the "Perrinott". His father was secretary-director of a Doncasterconfectionery works. He had two brothers: Noel, who became a well-known journalist and novelist, and Kenneth, who became secretary of Midland Bank.

"Complete uniforms were rare in our party, the one outstanding exception belonging to Tony Barber, who was resplendent in an Army lieutenant's uniform, complete with Sam Browne."[1]

Barber is a prominent figure throughout Calnan's book:

"It was natural that Charles Hall, Tony Barber and I should plot escape together. We had known one another at Benson, before being shot down and we still felt that we all belonged to the same unit."[2]

Barber also wrote a brief foreword to this volume: "What has struck me most forcibly is how, after more than twenty years, he has recounted our adventures with such accuracy. He has managed to make a reality, once again, of the hopes and fears, the depression and the excitement which, for most of us who were there, now seems more like a dream."[3]

His absence from Parliament was short-lived, as he won a 1965 by-election in Altrincham and Sale caused by the elevation to the peerage of Frederick Erroll. In opposition, he led Ted Heath's campaign to become Conservative party leader in 1965, and became party chairman in 1967. The Conservatives won the general election in 1970, and Barber held his seat until the general election of October 1974, when he himself entered the House of Lords.

Barber also reduced direct taxes. High levels of economic growth followed, but the traditional capacity constraints of the British economy - especially currency and balance of trade concerns - quickly choked the economic boom. The banking system fell towards crisis as the bubble burst.

During his term the economy suffered due to stagflation and industrial unrest. In 1972 he delivered a budget which was designed to return the Conservative Party to power in an election expected in 1974 or 1975. This budget led to a period known as "The Barber Boom". The measures in the budget led to high inflation and wage demands from Public Sector workers. He was forced to introduce anti-inflation measures in September 1972, along with a Prices Commission and a Pay Board. The inflation of capital asset values was also followed by the 1973 oil crisis which followed the Yom Kippur War, adding to inflationary pressures in the economy and feeding industrial militancy (already at a high as a result of the struggle over the Industrial Relations Act 1971).

In 1972, having said a week earlier in the House of Commons that he had "no reason to believe that the pound was overvalued", he floated it (most of the world currencies were floated at that time) "as a temporary measure". The pound immediately plunged on the markets, and it was impossible during his time as Chancellor to impose a new parity. It has remained floating ever since.

After a strike by the miners, and a Three-Day Week, Heath called for a general election on 28 February 1974 with the slogan "Who governs Britain?" The election returned a minority Labour government and Harold Wilson as Prime Minister.

Enoch Powell had refused to support the Conservatives at the first General Election of 1974, mainly on the issue of Europe - he was strongly opposed to British membership of the then European Common Market. As the Election approached, he attacked Heath and Barber over the economy and their failure to curb inflation. He said that the (Heath) Government had been reduced to printing money to balance the books and, "Every member of the cabinet is compromised for a generation and not one of them should have the effrontery to offer himself for re-election." It has been suggested that it was Powell who first referred to the Anthony Barber as "the Demon Barber."

Barber did not seek re-election at the general election of October 1974, and left front-line politics. He was made a life peer in January 1975 as Baron Barber, of Wentbridge in the County of West Yorkshire,[4] and served as Chairman of Standard Chartered Bank from1974 to 1987, where future Prime Minister John Major was his personal assistant. Barber was also a director of BP from 1979 to 1988. He visited Nelson Mandela in prison, and was a member of the Franks Committee that investigated the Falklands War. In 1991, he became chair of the RAF Benevolent Association’s appeal for the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, which raised £26 million.

He suffered from Parkinson's disease in later years, and died in Suffolk in 2005. He was married twice, with two daughters from his first marriage.